1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally pertains to an industrial exhaust hood and more particularly to an exhaust hood apparatus and installation method wherein all installation steps may be completed on site.
2. Description of the Background Art
Exhaust hoods are typically required above hot-food preparation stations to capture, filter, and exhaust the fumes created underneath containing grease and other by-products of the cooking process. An exhaust hood generally comprises a hood enclosure within which is retained a set of filters through which air is drawn into a plenum and passed through to a duct opening within the hood and out through ductwork within the building which routes the fumes past a fan driven vacuum source to be exhausted.
One of the difficulties encountered when installing conventional exhaust hoods has been with welding an attachment between the duct opening of the exhaust hood with the ductwork of the building. Exhaust hoods generally employ a custom collar which is welded to the exhaust hood as per installer provided drawings. In order that the exhaust hood be customized correctly with the duct collar, the installer must make precise measurements of the intended installation location and the exhaust hood and produce a drawing which depicts how the duct work for the exhaust hood is to be positioned within the hood. This requires the installer to perform at least one pre-installation visit to the site of intended installation. Once created, the drawing is sent to the hood manufacturer, wherein the drawing is interpreted and an exhaust hood is customized with a custom collar assembly welded in the manner prescribed in the drawings. Measuring, drawing, and customizing are costly, time consuming steps which have been necessary to assure that the exhaust hood gets properly secured to the ductwork. In addition, if the drawings or the factory makes any significant error with regards to dimensioning or positioning of the duct hole and collar, the whole exhaust hood assembly will need to make a return trip to the factory and the installation process further delayed. Errors such as these can substantially increase the overall cost of the exhaust hood.
In an attempt to circumvent these problems, a few installers have attempted to weld duct connections onto conventional exhaust hoods. However the construction of a conventional exhaust hood makes the task of welding in the duct work very difficult, and at times nearly impossible. The result is that many exhaust hood installations either have an incomplete weld or no welding at all. Installations with incomplete duct welding pose a safety hazard and generally do not meet with applicable standards.
Therefore, a need exists for an exhaust hood wherein the installer can easily perform all the installation operations in the field, including proper welding of the duct to the exhaust hood, without the need to create drawings and a requisite need to work with the factory on configuring a custom installation. The present invention satisfies these needs, as well as others, and overcomes the deficiencies of previously developed exhaust hood devices.
The current invention is an exhaust hood apparatus and installation method that allows for field installation of an off-the-shelf exhaust hood by a service person in the field. The exhaust hood contains an exterior hood structure which forms a partial enclosure which is constructed generally for mounting to one or more walls and a ceiling, and is configured on site with filters and filter retention mechanisms. The inventive exhaust hood apparatus can be installed on-site in a single process without the need of drawings and hood customization. During the installation process, the assembly of the filter-related mechanisms can be deferred as necessary to provide access that allows cutting of a duct hole and the subsequent welding of the duct to the exhaust hood.
An object of the invention is to eliminate the need for an installer to take precise measurements and create a drawing of the duct attachment to the exhaust hood.
Another object of the invention is to eliminate the requirement of having a factory welded duct collar.
Another object of the invention is to provide better access within the exhaust hood that allows the installer to create the duct work cutout and to completely weld the duct work to the hood.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be brought out in the following portions of the specification, wherein the detailed description is for the purpose of fully disclosing preferred embodiments of the invention without placing limitations thereon.